Ski Mont Blanc Spring 2011

24/04/2011 8:49 am

Rob Jarvis

Tags: Arete Royale , Grands Mulets , Ski Mont Blanc , Ski Mountaineering Chamonix

The superb, long, varied and thought provoking ski descent of Mont Blanc

An elevated spring snow line and stella anticyclonic weather has sent many teams up in to the high mountains in search of quality spring ski mountaineering. They don't come any higher in this part of the world than Mont Blanc and, for the last couple of weeks, there has been a well worn track linking the Plan de l'Aiguille to the Grands Mulets Hut to the 'Arête Royale' on the Dome du Gouter and the traditional ski depot just above the Col du Dome.

We made an ascent of this fine tough ski mountaineering line with an 0200 start on Friday morning. After a seemingly infinite number of kick turns in the dark the airy crest of the Arête Royale is reached and fleeting glimpses down on to the debris of the Petit Plateau remind you of why you are climbing the ridge with skis on your pack rather than the more gradual ascent of the Glacier above the Grand Mulets Hut. The amount of ice debris from serac collapse is impressive.

This route provides a safer, more technical and perhaps better traverse than the ascent of the Grand Mulets glacier

The Arête Royale provides an elegant line and sustained alpine mountaineering expedition at around an alpine grade of PD+ and is better suited to proper mountaineering crampons and ice axe than lightweight ski touring gear. There are sections up to C. 45°+ and currently only a very short section that is quite icy. Otherwise, for us, there was a helpful boot track all the way. Nevertheless the sustained climbing in the dark is tiring and it was a relieved team to be welcomed by dawn and the easier angled slopes of the shoulder on the Dome du Gouter N. Ridge from where a skinning traverse can be made in to the Col du Dome.

With broken touring skis my only option was to take my 'K2 Coombacks' which, with a 110mm waist and beefy Fritschi Freeride bindings are not exactly the Mont Blanc ski of choice and I was particularly glad to join the other parties in making a ski depot just above the Col du Dome as the slope up to the Valot Hut steepens and gets icy. After that it was back on the familiar territory of the Bosses Ridge and magnificent mountaineering atmosphere that comes with an ascent of Western Europe’s highest mountain.

Only one team (out of around 20) had elected to take their skis / boards to the summit and they successfully descended the North Face. The snow did not look great and the terrain looked serious and most teams were happy enough to be stomping back for an easy ski off the Col du Dome. This is no place for complacency though as the hazards keep coming on the descent with some pretty tight manoeuvring required around crevasses, about 0.5km of constant ice debris to ski though below the notorious Grand Mulets seracs and, to cap that section off a steep 8m slope of side slipping down grey ice.

The fine, long & varied ski descent of Mont Blanc

The transitions keep coming, the clock keeps ticking and the day warms up. You have to keep your skates on and keep on keeping on to get back to the Plan de l'Aiguile before the lower glaciers and steep slopes get too hot and bothered.

The reward for doing so is a cold drink on the open air terrace and a view back to a big day on the planks. This is not rolling ski touring country. This is steep, icy, seracs, glaciers, crevasses, mountaineering, kick-turns, high altitude. This is ski mountaineering Chamonix Mont-Blanc style.

Stay posted below for comments on progressing conditions this spring / early summer and please post if you have any updates.

Good skiing, Rob.

Ski Mont Blanc (4810m)

The ski descent of Mont Blanc

High level traverse under the North Face of the Aiguille du Midi

Leaving the Plan de l'Aiguille station en route to the Grands Mulets Hut

Comments

Mont Blanc ascent via Grand Mulets 23rd 24th 25th May

Thursday 26 May 2011 7:49:21 pm

Paul Maine

Hi Rob thanks for your posts on the conditions which spurred us on to 'go for it'. We set off on Monday for the Grand Mulets hut my partner very unsure as to what to expect. Our progress was slow but sure. We arrived at the hut and were told dinner is served now! ok thats fine but my friend is a veggie! Sorry ne comprend pas! As usual a fitful sleep in an alpine hut. Soooo many people getting up, farting, snoring, sleep talking......anyway the 1.30 reveille came too soon and everyone was up diving into thier rucksacks. Our breakfast was the usual bread and jam which I had to soak in hot choc before i could manage to chew it !! Then the real faff starts !! Watching people get ready to leave is always a spectale....the chain descent from the hut in the dark is a skill to be aquired, Mich dealt with it very well when I explained that you need to trust your feet and not hang off the chain....so lets skin up an icy north face in the dark ! Oh and practice those kick turney things while we are at it.....Mich is a great skier (came second in the womens cross event this year) but touring on this magnitude is a first for her. But no complaining and she fought on. Then came the boot pack, we roped up and were linked.... but the alittude was making its presence felt and the going came slower. We continued after a short rope section towards the col du dome and had a 'team discusson'.............I said shall we come back next week I'm shagged' Mich said 'I've got this far and I'm never fucking coming back here again so lets get on with it ! We left our skis at the vallot hut and continued, meeting several summiters on thier way down. We had the mountain to ourselves and made better progress to the top, but it kept coming.........the summit ridge all the way to the end and back..........most of the day I had climbed in a tee shirt and thin base layer but on the summit the temp alternated between very warm (get me outta here) to freezing wheres my down jacket. Loosing a couple of 100m saw us delayering BUT time had been ticking on and we made the decision to stay at the vallot hut. We were both exetremely tired we could have made it back down to the grand mulets hut we hoped for stronger legs in the morning. Sooooo the emergency plan? Ive got two replacement meal bars and urrh not a lot else lets have a feast of half a bar for dinner and half a bar for breakfast?? it worked both happy to take on the North face of MB in the morning. Skiing was fantastic soooo worth it all the way back down to the GM hut for tea and water. Lets not discard the three hours from the hut back to the midi station. All in all an amazing expedition to test anyone...........

Ski Mont Blanc 20th May

Monday 23 May 2011 8:29:13 am

Rob Jarvis

A number of heavy afternoon storms had deposited fresh snow above about 3000m. Not only did this gave the ascent a superb pristine feel but it had also plastered snow on to the Arete Royale giving better, less icy conditions than 3 weeks ago. A very quiet day on the mountain combined with the fresh, pristine snow gave a superb mountaineering experience all the way up to the Bosses Ridge and summit of Mont Blanc. We skied for a few turns down towards the Col de la Brenva before venturing on to the steep entrance pitch on to the North Face.

A lightly bridged crevasse at the top of the face caused some route finding discussion and the best line was found to be be a hard descending leftward traverse with a small hop over the bridge. After that there was some very fine skiing to be had all the way down the north face. Although the lower section is still exposed to the active serac band it is possible to now take a line keeping quite far right in the lower section of the face thus minimising exposure to the seracs. Likewise lower down on the Petit Plateau fresh snow had covered most of the ice debris meaning a much faster and smoother descent could be made.

On the final section of descent above the Grands Mulets Hut it was important to keep well right to avoid the heavily crevassed section on the commonly taken left hand exit.

Due to the fresh snow and inclement weather forecast for mid-afternoon we took an 00.30 alarm call and left the Grande Mulets hut at 01.30. This worked well and a later start would not have been desirable due to the warm afternoon conditions and nature of the snow on the lower glacier sections.

All in all a great days ski mountaineering Chamonix style and a fine conclusion to the 2010/11 ski season.

Please post here if you ski Mont Blanc any later in this season.

Good skiing, see you next season, Rob.

Mont Blanc 25 - 26 April

Thursday 28 April 2011 7:01:03 pm

Brian Morrison

Thanks for your report Rob. Very useful info for our ascent this week. Had similar conditions to you. A team doing pitches resulted in a queue on the icy section of the Arete Royal, but after that clear to the top. Stopped for a bit in the Vallot Hut to warm up and put on more clothes as 20 - 25 mph wind giving a good bit of windchill. A brief stop for photos on the summit then down. Some icy skiing immediately below the Vallot hut and again on a short steeper section further down, but otherwise great skiing helped by a few inches of fresh snow the previous evening. Some pretty stodgy snow and a bit of morraine scrambling to get back to the telecabine finished off a great 2 days.